(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication terminal, a place management server, and a method of detecting place information. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method of detecting location information about a user's location using a short range wireless communication terminal.
(b) Description of the Related Art
In a user's information, location information is one of central elements in providing a user custom-made service. Nowadays, due to the spread of smart phones, a user's location such as latitude and longitude can be easily determined using a global positioning system (GPS), and various location-based services are performed using the location information.
However, in an indoor environment, in most cases, because a GPS signal is not received, location information cannot be acquired using a GPS. Further, in an indoor environment in which a GPS signal is not received, location estimation may be performed using base station information of a mobile communication terminal or an access point (AP), but this has a problem that it provides more inaccurate information than a GPS.
Furthermore, it is not easy to grasp a positional meaning with only the user's location information that is generally displayed with latitude and longitude. For example, even if specific latitude and longitude are known, it is difficult to determine a place and to specify a place name and place classification. For example, when a large number of buildings exist at a periphery of specific coordinates, it is difficult to extract a specific location of a building with only simple coordinate information.
However, when a name and classification of a place at which the user is located can be determined, a service provider that provides a service using the name and the classification can perform marketing through more accurate targeting. For example, when a person frequently visits a hamburger shop (place classification) of “Lotteria” (place name), the person may use an intelligent and optimized custom-made service such as recommendation of a place of the same classification while traveling.
However, conventional location measurement technology uses only location information that is acquired from a GPS, an AP, and a mobile communication base station, and has a problem of an overly large error range indoors. Therefore, it is difficult to accurately determine the user's location with a conventional location measurement method, and it is very difficult to determine the user's place information using the location.